A big family weekend

May is the month of long weekends.  May 1st was on a Monday and that coincided with the May Bank Holiday in the UK, so Claire organized a family get together. It was supposed to be a big family birthday celebration since it's so hard to come together on birthdays. So why not designate a date that we could all agree upon? She queried us all about our availability for the date. She set the place as Toulouse because it's not really all that hard for us to get there. The Parisians and Brits could fly in. Paul and I drove down because we expected to extend the weekend. Emma and Gabriel live only an hour and a half away, by car.
Add to that the difficulty of seeing the Lebelle cousins more than once in a while and never together, which led to extending the invitation (for a Sunday lunch) to Pierre and Gillette's family. They answered the call and we were really looking forward to having everyone, but a couple of weeks before the date, one of theirs had to drop out. He was returning to France from a business trip just the day before and had to leave on another the day after, so his family stayed home. And another of our nieces just finished her exams and stayed home. That meant a group of 21 instead of 26 for Sunday lunch. Not bad!

The participants and some extended family have received a link to the shared online photo album and since almost all the pictures are personal, of us, I'm not sharing them, here. However, here is a photo of the yard of the house we rented. We had a cat and three chickens.
It was a big old farm house with lots of rooms that had been transformed into small apartments big enough for each to have a separate bedroom, living room area, bath or shower, and kitchenette. Each family unit had its own apartment ("gite"). On the ground floor, there was a big kitchen and living room, so we didn't use the kitchenettes in our apartments. We arrived on Friday and, after a little rest, went to the airport for Anne, came home, had a spaghetti dinner before I returned to the airport to pick up the British contingent. Saturday morning, I returned to the airport for the Parisian group and those arriving from Tarn-et-Garonne arrived. Claire had a visit from one of her Toulouse friends and, after a pizza lunch (really good pizza, for once), we headed off on the tram to visit the Airbus site, where we had a visit to the A380 assembly hangar. It being the May 1st weekend (that's the sacred Labor Day, here), the line was closed down, but we could see just how enormous those planes are. It's a shame the guide we had was not more enthusiastic. She rattled off her numbers and was a bit impatient with kids who were trying to ask questions.
Sunday, we walked along the Garonne to the restaurant, where we met up with the others. I think we all had a good time: loads of varied conversation. The children all played well, together. V. is closer to adulthood and seemed pleased to discover her dad's cousins. We continued the visit back at the house until they had to leave. Monday, May 1st, everything was closed -- almost everything. There was no public transportation, no tram. Some took our car to go into Toulouse for a short visit, a walk around the city center. Others went into Toulouse in the afternoon, after the first family left to return to Paris, and took a boat ride on the river. We emptied the house and dropped the last ones, the British contingent, at the airport late in the afternoon and headed towards Najac.
Spring is so lovely. There is such variety in green. Everything seems to be green, except the colza, which is in full yellow bloom. This is the southwest and there is a water deficit. In summer, it'll be all dried up but for now, it's beautiful. Our home away from home is the Hotel Le Belle Rive, where we are really welcomed as old friends. We spent Tuesday with Emma and Gabriel, but because I had a sore throat and back ache, we decided not to prolong the stay and returned home on Wednesday.

We had an adventure! A tire blew out. A few years ago, this happened to me in England, the right front tire. Well, this time it was the left back tire. We were very lucky to find the emergency phone safety zone just a couple of hundred meters away. We called; a really short time after, the highway emergency van came by with a very friendly guy. Handshakes all around. He called the local garage to find out how long they would be, but almost as soon as he hung up, they were there. They installed the spare tire you are not supposed to drive much on in a very short time and we were also very lucky that the next exit was just a couple of km. away. This gave us the chance to drive slowly through the green countryside, again, where we saw lots of sheep (and lambs) and cows (and calves) and wheat fields, still green, and colza, all yellow. The idea was to find a tire shop somewhere on the way to Limoges, and we did. In fact, in the shopping zone just outside of Limoges and on the road we were on (no extra detours!) there were two shops opposite one another, Feu Vert and Norauto! Once the tires were mounted, we had a quick lunch and hit the A20. I think the entire tire incident cost us less time than the traffic jam around Paris, when we hit it before 5 pm. We didn't get home until well after 6.
The only thing I'm going to say about the election is that I'll vote early, tomorrow and I don't know if I'll volunteer to count the votes as I did two weeks ago.

Spring Update

It's no surprise; I don't feel like writing much these days. Looking back, though, over the past 3 or 4 months, I haven't been sitting, watching the world go by.
We went to the UK at the end of February for a lovely visit with the family, there. No, we didn't do much -- just appreciated the family! That's enough for us. On my birthday, the very day, at the beginning of February, I found just the knitting machine I'd been on the lookout for -- a brother "bulky" machine with its ribber. It was my birthday. I figured it was meant for me, so I arranged to buy it from the very nice lady in Bedford -- not far from Northampton, really. I asked G. if he could pick it up for me, pay the lady in cash.... And he did. So, when we arrived at the end of the month, by car, it was waiting for me and all I had to do was pay G. back.
I managed to set the machine up just before leaving for the US in mid-March. I even managed to make a scarf for T. for his birthday! There were a few sloppy patches -- dropped stitches in the Fisherman's Rib -- that I had to repair by hand, but nothing catastrophic. I also made a scarf for my high school friend in Florida, T.
This leads to the trip to the US -- first a night in Philly with M. T. and her husband. Very enjoyable evening with these old, old family friends (our grandparents were close friends, already) and then into Philly in the morning for an agreeable meeting with the Commissioner for Elections at the Election Board to discuss some of the glitches in the absentee system -- between the Board of Elections and the pavoter site.
After the meeting, I took the train to the airport and caught my flight down to DC, where I got a new metro card and hopped onto the metro to go out to T. and B.'s. Friday evening was T' 90th birthday party! Earlier that day, I had a cup of coffee with K. and talked about what was happening as far as our overseas Americans issues were concerned. He's been working with the Republicans Overseas on their tax proposal, which promotes territorial taxation. He's also been involved with setting up a Congressional hearing on FATCA, to be held later this month. He's also very homesick for France. When I got back to the house, I saw my cousin T. and R. for a little while, before we all went off to get ready for the party. It was a wonderful family reunion. Cousins not seen for a long, long time. Family never met before. My brother, J., and T, of course, down from Pittsburgh. Lively conversation. A successful party!
Sunday, I moved out of their house to go to the airbnb room I had rented in DC. It was simply a room this time, not a whole apartment, as I had no one to share with. The apartment belongs to a charming young engineer. We didn't run into each other very much. The only complaint I could have was the spotty wifi connection. I could connect if I was in the living room sitting in front of the box, but as soon as I went back to my room, the connection was gone. It was not far from the U-street station and just a little farther to the Dupont Circle station.
On a map, nothing looks far. I got off the metro at Dupont Circle and walked down to the Staples at 19th and L to pick up the printing of our position papers that I had ordered on line. It was a bit longer walk than I had thought it would be, but since I stopped for lunch on the way, it was a nice walk. On the way to my room though, it was a much longer walk, even if I didn't go back up to Dupont Circle, and dragging my suitcase and the printing was not pleasant. The room was on 15th, between R and S.
Early in the evening, I walked over to Dupont Circle -- the others were staying close by. We met at the Cosmos Club, which is just behind the Phillips Collection. I arrived early enough to spend a little while at the Phillips. They had a Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit on. My back gave out after only half an hour, so I wandered off to the Cosmos and ran into N. just as I entered the building. I distributed our position papers to the others.
We had some interesting meetings both on and off the Hill. I've written my reports and talked about it since coming back and do not want to dwell on it, here. For me, the week was over after the meeting at the State Department on Friday. I went back to my room to collect my suitcase and then took the metro to the airport.
There was a big P family gathering in Orlando to celebrate Roger. BIG. On Saturday, 18 of us went to the New Smyrna for a day at the beach. I fell asleep and the back of my legs got a bit burnt. In the evening, there was a big dinner party for family and then more people came as dessert time for the celebration of his life. G. has published a wonderful book of his musings, poetry, and artwork, which I was able to pick up before leaving. Sunday morning, we all gathered at the house for brunch. It was ever so pleasant to be with the clan. The day went on and we had scrumptious leftovers and not just leftovers. After the week in DC, I felt relaxed, at last.
Monday, I took off, on my own, to visit T and her husband on the west coast of Florida. First, I left the road to go to a yarn shop in Winter Haven, Four Purls. They couldn't have been nicer, but they did not have the kind of inexpensive cotton I was looking for. They had plenty of other beautiful yarns and if any Floridians who knit or crochet are reading this, I recommend the place. Then it was back roads through rural Florida -- horse farms, mostly -- to T's. And we gabbed and gabbed and gabbed and watched a movie (Lion) and gabbed and gabbed. I must compliment her husband on his patience with us. They treated me to a great buffet style restaurant -- nothing special, just plain good food.
I guess I wasn't as relaxed and back to my normal state as I thought I was. I managed to convince myself that my flight back was on Tuesday, so instead of spending the day and another night at T's, I ended up rushing back to Orlando, picked up the book from G., and rushed to the airport. There, I discovered I didn't have my passports and French wallet. I had left them in the safe at the hotel in Orlando on Monday morning! Panic. Calls to the hotel and finally the receptionist on the phone with me got into her car to bring them to me. Then, the realization that my ticket was for Wednesday, not Tuesday. I was so upset. I gave the receptionist a nice tip and thanked her but did not mention the date mixup! I couldn't. All this had taken quite some time. I would have missed my flight had it really been for Tuesday. I was still upset at having gotten all mixed up. I went to find an inexpensive hotel near the airport with shuttle service (I had turned in the car, of course.), ordered a pizza, and watched TV until I fell asleep. The next morning, I spent about an hour by the pool and took the shuttle back to the airport with lots and lots of time before my flight, so I managed to get off my thank you notes and have a nice lunch.
Back to France and departure almost immediately for four days in Valencia with our Pierwige friends. Not all of them. This time we were a group of 3 couples. Valencia is a beautiful city. The architecture is grandiose and each building is different. It's a change from the Haussmann uniformity of Paris. Different colors, different styles. This was a pleasant break. M. had done all the organizing, so kudos to her, and I just relaxed and got over my jetlag.
Upon return to France, this time, we had the AARO annual general meeting on March 31, which I had had the responsibility of organizing. It went off well. A. had gotten us our guest speaker, Jim Bittermann, who was exceptional. He spoke on the state of the media. It was a refreshing subject -- not American-centric, not Paris or French-centric. The following week, it was the Tax 202 seminar (Tax 101 was on March 6) and I had had the responsibility of that one, too. During that week, we also had a 5-year-old grandson staying with us. We had done some gardening in the gorgeous Spring weather and my back was killing me on Thursday. It still is, in fact.
The first week of Spring break, then, we had S. with us and this past week, he and sister and mother have been at her parents'. It was A's birthday, this week. We went to the Al Thani jewel exhibit at the Grand Palais.
I've done some knitting, but can't sit for long periods because of my back. Writing this has taken me to the limit, today.

We're in Washington -- AARO!

Victoria (follow her on the Franco-American Flophouse) and I are sharing a flat, obtained via airbnb, in the Adams Morgan section of DC, right near the zoo. We walked to, and later from, the metro station at Woodley Park -- a pleasant walk across Rock Creek on the Duke Ellington Bridge. It's a neighborhood, with people going about their business and as we were walking home yesterday evening, we thought how far we were from the hill.

So, let's go to the hill, which is why we are here in DC, anyway! It's Overseas Americans Week. This year, the delegation is made up of AARO (sorry, no link because it's still the old, outdated website and I won't put up a link until the new site is up) and FAWCO, the Federation of American Women's Clubs Overseas. Our partners at ACA now have a permanent presence in Washington. The AARO Facebook page will carry regular updates. We are united in our positions and efforts to bring about change in the laws, rules and regulations that have had unintended negative consequences on we who live abroad.
To start, breakfast at the Longworth Cafeteria. It was the first chance we had for all of us to get together. Tim's not in this picture, because he's the one who took it. We got down to business as soon as we cleared away the trays. Got out schedule sorted out: who would attend which meetings. Today, Tuesday, that's especially important as we've got several simultaneous appointments.

Then, we all went off to the IRS to the Taxpayer Advocate Service, headed by Nina Olson, who has extensive knowledge of our particular issues and has worked very hard to bring about change. In fact, AARO presented her with an award for her dedication. Her key staff were also present and we all recognize that their contribution is immeasurable. We can't say too much, yet, about the content of the meeting. But our key issues are very high on their list of priorities.
Back to the hill, first to bring Carolyn Maloney's office up to date. She is the co-chair of the Americans Abroad Caucus. And on to other representatives. No need to go into details. I think that our new issue on APEC cards (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and the card is the ABTC, Asia business travel card) is getting a lot of attention. This is a card that allows streamlined processing for business travelers belonging to the APEC economies. The US is one, so it honors the cards of business travelers from member economies, and passed a law in 2011 to establish the card for US business travelers. Homeland Security has still not issued those cards.
Must go, now. Today is a busy, busy day.

Bum shoulder

Still snowing as I finish up this post

Here we are, mid-March, and it's snowing again. Before the snow, we had freezing rain, so it's very slippery out. I think I'll not go to the library today. I have to return the video projector to the AARO office and I think that can wait until tomorrow, too. Tomorrow, I want to spend some time with Gwen and Sacha. So, I hope the weather cooperates. 

What really astounds me is that OAW was a full month ago! Before that week started, I had a couple of very nice, even snowy, days in Swarthmore. J and E live very near the college campus in a beautiful, comfortable house with their two Basenji dogs, who entertained me thoroughly. We went to see "Silver Linings Playbook" and it was strange to recognize the local places. Well, I didn't recognize them, except that I knew it had been filmed nearby, but J & E certainly recognized the high school, the diner, etc. That was followed by a light supper with K & J. K is another discovered Girls High mate! I can't say enough how wonderful it has been, these past few years, to discover these wonderful women I never knew before. What is great about having never known them in the past, or having no memory of ever knowing them, is that I have no pre-conceived ideas of what kind of people they are -- none of that "we weren't in the same crowd" attitude. The ones I do remember are also wonderful; I'm very pleased to meet so many more.  Speaking of light supper, that was a fantastic homemade minestrone, a complete meal, hot and filling, followed by a thick, homemade pumpkin pie. Whoever complains about how badly Americans eat (French friends do that), they just don't get fed in homes! They certainly don't get fed by J!

Leaving them for Washington, in spite of the snow, I managed to catch my train to D.C. It was so cold, some fo the train's doors were frozen shut and some refused to close once they opened, so we were a few minutes late getting in. Connecting to the D.C. metro, though, is easy and I called T & B, who met me at the Hyatt, which is just at the exit of the Bethesda station. Good thing, too, because it was very, very cold and I didn't have to wait outside. We had a good lunch, there. Of course, we ended up with doggy bags because the servings were too big. On Sunday, we went to a local art show and then they dropped me off at the house my OAW mates and I had rented via airbnb. Ben, the host, was there waiting for me and showed me around. It's right across the street from a supermarket, but we didn't need to get any food. M, one of my housemates, arrived with a ton of food from Costco that she'd bought in anticipation of our kickoff get-together that evening at G's appartment. We had too much food, way too much. We left some of the leftovers with G and brought the rest home with us. Even after we had a mid-week get-together at our place, we still had leftovers, which I hope our hosts managed to finish off. J and I each had our own rooms and M had the sofabed and we did not get in each other's way getting up, using the bathrooms, etc. We had a nice dining table to do our evening prep work and just chat around. It was a short, direct walk to the metro station (Potomac Ave.) and only two stops to Capitol South. We were definitely the closest to our daily destination. I would certainly try to get this house again for the next OAW!

The jigsaw puzzle

All things come to an end and I left DC on Friday to go to Boston to see E & M. E is a true Girls High friend, one that I've never lost touch with, one I love and we can just pick up our conversation. At last I got to relax. It was relaxing at J & E's, but I was jet-lagged. It was relaxing at T & B's, but I was excited and a bit anxious about the week to come. At E & M's, the week was over; jetlag was over; I could relax. Besides, it was going to snow, so we didn't go out. We talked, and talked, and talked and started a jigsaw puzzle, and listened to "Car Talk" and "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me". I have now programmed my nice internet radio to NPR podcasts, and to a several stations in the US and the UK, too. 

E & M digging out to take me to the airport!

Since just before Christmas, my shoulder has been hurting. I started out taking something for the pain and inflammation, but there was no change in the pain, so I didn't keep it up. In addition to the shoulder, the biceps hurts constantly, as if I were By the end of January, my right arm could hardly move, but our trip to England, followed by my trip to the States was coming up, so I went to see an osteopath here n Nogent and he worked more than an hour on my locked joints and got my arm to move. He sent me home with a recommendation to put ice on my shoulder and warned me it might hurt a bit more for a few days. We went off to England and my shoulder hurt more and then settled to its regular pain. In the couple of days home, before leaving for the States, I decided not to go back to the osteopath so soon, because I really couldn't bear having it hurt more again when I needed to wear a backpack and pull a suitcase. I had a very good massage at the airport in Boston on my way home; I could feel the knots undoing. And on arriving home, I went straight to the osteopath, who did his thing and remarked that it was easier to manipulate the joints. It was not more painful in the following days and I managed to lift my arm and use it. The next week was even a bit better. I still needed to make an appointment with the doctor because this is not the first time I've had this and I need to have the underlying cause of it taken care of. With the school vacation, though, I can't get through to her. This past week, I've regressed to where I was two months ago and I realize how time flies. I guess, too, that I'm trying to compensate for awkwardness and straining my back in the process. Tomorrow -- return to the osteopath.

Sorry to complain. But that's why I haven't felt like writing much.  I have managed to get back to scanning the negatives and I came across more than 200 black and white negatives of Paul's that go back to before we met. I scanned those yesterday and am trying to figure out some order to them. I'll put a few up on Picasa to share with D.L., P & J, and K. B. -- some pictures of the Pierwige from 1967-69! Only a few more days to go with the negatives and I'll be all caught up on what I have. But still can't find the ones that got me started on this -- from the trip out West in '93. I found the first part of the trip -- Jon and Tobi's new house, Claire holding the baby, Eric, Louis' birthday party at Terry and Roger's, some beautiful black and white shots of Roger's furniture...and scattered photos from the West.